


Get it Yourself

by iwillpaintasongforlou



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, a little angsty but not bad, and it's mutual, and nick likes harry, but harry likes louis, happy ending guaranteed, louis and nick are friends, mostly fluff and cliches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-24
Updated: 2014-06-24
Packaged: 2018-02-06 00:19:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1837474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwillpaintasongforlou/pseuds/iwillpaintasongforlou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis thought his best mate Nick was exaggerating when he said his latest crush was the most gorgeous man on the planet. He never expected it to be true, and Harry never expected to fall instantly in love with his date's best mate. Oops. This could get complicated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Get it Yourself

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ODing_on_Larry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ODing_on_Larry/gifts).



> The prompt: Nick and Louis are friends, Nick is in love with his good friend Harry and introduced Louis to Harry. Problem is that Louis starts falling for Harry, and he doesn't want to do anything about it because he doesn't want to hurt Nick. Problem is that Harry starts falling for Louis, too. In fact, Louis learns a year later that it was love at first sight for Harry. Louis still doesn't know what to do.

“Louis, I’m telling you, he’s _perfect."_

The addressee rolled his eyes so Nick couldn’t see, continuing to pay more attention to his phone than to his ridiculous best friend. “Yeah, but you’ve also said that about every other guy you’ve ever been interested in."

“No but this time I mean it,” Nick pressed on, undeterred. “He’s got this curly hair and these big eyes and these adorable little dimples. And he’s always smiling and he’s so sweet all the time-”

“You sound like you’re describing a toddler. He’s not a toddler, right? Because I _will_ call the police-” A hanger, probably from one of the fifteen shirts Nick has tried on and discarded in getting ready for this outing, soars through the air and only misses Louis’ head by an inch. “I’m just trying to look out for you, mate!” Louis defends with a laugh. “You wouldn’t do well in prison.”

“He’s twenty and you’re a dick,” Nick just grumbled in reply.

After that Louis went easy on him, halting his flow of sarcasm and harassment to actually be helpful in dressing the poor, nervous man. He’d been flirting with this guy- what was his name, Hank?- for a while now, and had only just worked up the nerve to ask him out. Of course it wasn’t a _real_ date, considering that he’d also invited Louis along. “I panicked, okay?” Nick had defended. “I’ll be better if you’re there, anyways. You make me feel proper cool.”

And so Louis agreed to attend this weird little meeting, even if it meant giving up his Saturday night. He’d go to this dumb bar with Nick and be the unnecessary third wheel, all so that he could serve as a safety blanket and maybe help Nick get in good with this guy.

Plus, Louis _was_ curious to see what this guy looked like. Twenty with dimples? Come on.

They got there fifteen minutes early because Nick was an absolute nerd, and found a booth off to the side to sit in and wait. Louis took the side by the wall and Nick slid in after him so that Hank -Hardin? Howard? whatever- could sit across from them and Nick could stare into his “gorgeous green eyes” all night. Louis had three martinis ready to go in front of him in accordance with his personal rule of “if you can’t have fun, have a few too many.”

Nick’s leg was bouncing nervously under the table as the clock clicked nearer and nearer to seven. “He won’t be late,” Nick informed the universe at large. “He’s never late, very punctual. He’s- ah! There he is!”

And there he certainly was.

The man approaching the table was tall and lean and just absolutely gorgeous. For once, Nick hadn’t been exaggerating. One arm, exposed by the casual tank top he wore, was covered in tattoos from shoulder to wrist, which almost seemed comically badass in contrast with the childlike smile he flashed as he approached.

“Hey, Nick, how are you?” He leaned down to give Nick an awkward hug, slid into the booth, and for the first time, looked at Louis.

It was stupid to think that there was a moment or something that happened, because this wasn’t a fucking chick flick and Louis was not a sentimentalist. But if he were the type to believe in that mushy gushy shit, he might have noted that something passed between them as their eyes met that wasn’t familiar to Louis at all.

But no, that would definitely be way stupid.

It would also be dumb if Louis continued to light up every time he and Harry (not Hank, apparently) ran into one another. It was residual enchantedness from the way Nick refused to shut up about him, just secondhand affection that had him laughing at all of the dumb jokes that fell from those pretty lips. And it wasn’t weird to think about how pretty those lips were, because it was just a fact and logical, totally not-sentimental guys like Louis loved stating facts. Right? Right.

It took about six months for Louis to admit that he might have a thing for this Harry Styles guy.

Of course it wasn’t like he _planned_ to fall for the guy his best mate had fallen for. He wasn’t that kind of an asshole. It’s just that Harry was sort of… perfect. And Louis was sort of really into that.

Which made it pretty uncomfortable when Nick started talking about how Harry kept putting him in “the friend zone” and how every hang out was strictly casual. Louis tried to be sympathetic, to coo in appropriate dismay when Nick said that there appeared to be no spark between him and this perfect man, but the sympathy was only as deep as the painted frown on Louis’ face.

Not that he was going to make a move on Harry or anything, no matter what happened (or didn’t happen) with Nick. He wasn’t that kind of guy.

So when it’s been a year, and months and months have passed since Nick’s so much as spoken to Harry, he still isn’t scheming anything. He didn’t plan to run into the guy at the supermarket. It just sorta happened.

“Louis?” called a familiar voice, drawing his attention away from the wall of wine bottles and to the produce section behind him. At first he sees no one, but then a giant hand waves at him from over by the banana stand and draws his eye to trademark dimples and a delighted smile.

“Harry!” Louis says, surprised. “Hey, how are you? Been a while since I’ve seen you around.” _Since Nick realized you were a lost cause._

The younger boy was already walking over to give Louis a tight, gentle hug. “Yeah, it has. Too long. I’m good, are you good?”

“I’m great,” Louis answers honestly. There’s a little bubble of happiness growing in his stomach, actually, and maybe it shouldn’t be there but it is. It makes him continue on, too honest. “I’ve missed you.”

Harry looks like he understands. He looks at Louis quietly, carefully, and answers with a slow, “Me too.”

“Do you- would you want to go get some coffee?” Louis asks, even though he knows better than to ask. This should be a definite line drawn, because hanging out with the guy that your best mate used to be into was just as weird as hanging out with the best mate of the guy who you rejected. He ought to make some excuse and duck out of here right now.

He doesn’t take back the offer.

He shouldn’t lean forward to catch all of Harry’s words as they sit across from each other in the coffee shop the next afternoon, either. It’s just that he’s so enticing, sitting there with sparkling eyes and excited rambles, that Louis is drawn in like a flower to the sun. He’s got Nick in the back of his mind, but he’s got Harry right here in front of him.

They leave together, talking and walking in no particular direction for an hour before they realize it. Then it becomes Louis walking Harry home, and they’re ambling through the streets of London as the sun sets discussing things as simple as politics and as grand as the proper way to assemble the perfect sandwich. It’s like a bubble exists around them that makes it okay for them both to focus solely on each other, because it’s just Harry and Louis and the rest is just details.

“Oh, this is me,” Harry announced when they reached a quaint little brick townhouse with plants all up the front stairs. “Thanks for- for the coffee.”

“Yeah, absolutely, it was fun,” returned Louis nervously. “We should, uh, do it again sometime.”

“Was this a date?” Harry suddenly blurts, like the words have been pushing at his lips all afternoon. “I’m just curious. Because like we just had coffee and I thought I felt something but we didn’t really _say_ it was a date so I don’t want to assume anything, but-”

“You felt something?” interrupts Louis, his mind focusing in on this one most beautiful tidbit.

Harry is blushing furiously, but he doesn’t try to backtrack. “I- well, yeah. Did you?”

“Definitely,” Louis grinned. “Does that mean that this was a date?”

“Do you … want it to be a date?”

“That depends. If it was, does that mean I get to kiss you?”

Harry never really answers, just leans over and presses his mouth to Louis’ in a warm kiss that’s buzzing with built-up anticipation. “I’ve been wanting you to kiss me since the first time you met me,” he murmurs in the seconds between when they can pull their lips apart and when they’re drawn together again magnetically.

“No shit?”

“No shit. I think it was love at first sight or something.”

Louis has to halt their kisses to throw his head back and laugh, because it’s just the sort of cheesy, cliched, overindulgent sort of thing Harry would say, and that makes it even sweeter. “Poor Nick, then,” is all he can think to tease. “He thought he’d look cool with me along, but he didn’t think that he’d never stand a chance against me.”

It was supposed to make Harry laugh, but he winced instead. “Nick…”

“This is a bit awkward, innit?” Louis realized with a grimace. “You’re not really supposed to snog your mate’s former flames. It’s poor taste.”

“Well. We were never _together_ together.”

“That’s true.”

“And there was never anything going on, at least on my end.”

“Right, I gathered.”

“So it technically wouldn’t be like you were dating his ex or anything.”

“Is that what I’m to do?” Louis countered with a grin. “Am I to properly date you now? Take you out to dinners and buy you flowers and kill spiders for you and all that?”

“Of course,” Harry said with a serious expression except where his eyes glittered with mischief. “You’ve just spent five minutes snogging me on my front steps. You have to make an honest man out of me now.”

Somehow it didn’t sound like an obligation that Louis would mind all that much.

…………………

It took two whole months for them to tell Nick, though they preferred to think of it less as cowardice and more as careless procrastinating. “We’ll tell him next time,” they would say after each missed opportunity. “It’s not a big deal. We just forgot, that’s all.”

Until it gets to the point where Louis can be found laid out on Harry’s couch with his fists in Harry’s hair and Harry’s hands fumbling at his belt, and all Louis can think about is how much he loves this kid. It’s when he realizes that his world has Harry at the center, and his best friend doesn’t even know.

They go to him the next day, all sweaty palms and thundering heartbeats, to tell him the news. “Nick, hey, what’s up?” Louis says as they walk into the pub where he’s asked Nick to meet him. He’s sitting there on a barstool, already with a beer in his hand.

“Louis! Oh- and Harry. Hey, Harry, I didn’t know you were coming. Good to see you, been a while.” Nick cleared his throat a little uncomfortably, but didn’t seem any less genuinely pleased to see him. “What brings you here?”

Harry chewed on his lip a little more before answering. “Well, I actually asked to come along, because I - because _we_ have something we want to tell you.”

Nick flicked his eyes back and forth between the pair, taking in nervous expressions and surreptitious glances. “Please tell me you’re dating already,” he finally said.

“Wh- what?” Louis exclaimed, half relieved and half put out. “You knew this entire time?”

“Well I didn’t _know,_  obviously, but I knew from like two weeks in that Harry was a better fit for you than he ever was for me.” Nick took a calm swig from his beer and smirked at the shocked pair. “What? I wasn’t going to do all the bloody work for you. If you’re going to get some you ought to get it yourself.”

“That’s just cruel,” Harry said, but he was grinning, too. “And here we were, scared you’d be mad at us for getting together.”

“But not mad enough to avoid putting that hickey on Louis last week, eh? Come on, love, I’m not that daft.”

And any other time Louis might have fought him on that, might have tried to tease him into submission… but his best mate was smiling and so was the man that he might just love, and that was more than enough to make him hold his tongue. He chose the happier route and didn’t look back.

“Can I get a beer for my boyfriend and I?”

 

**Author's Note:**

> You can try all you like to keep magnets apart, but they're going to find each other in the end no matter what.
> 
> :) canonlarry | tumblr


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